Frozen Paw Prints
by MelStitch
Summary: There's something about Judy that reminds Nick of someone he used to know way back when he was younger. He just can't put his finger on it.


**Hey yall. So I'm finally back from hiatus after what a year, maybe two? Either way I have returned and am happy to say that I have metamorphosed into Zootopia WildeHopps trash while I was out. To be sure the next installment in The Opposite of Imperfection is coming out soon so be on the lookout for it. Until then, this little fic awaits you.**

"What?"

"What, what?"

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

Nick had been doing his best not to appear like he was staring, but when you're sticking your head over the top of the sofa looking into another room it was hard not to be obvious. Judy continued pouring the popcorn she had taken from the microwave into the bowl. His rabbit had to be on her tip toes to comfortably work on the countertop of his kitchen. After a long week of nothing but continually piling paperwork at the office they had agreed a weekend movie was in order, with Nick's residence being their theatre of choice.

"I wasn't staring at you," he lied.

"I'm sure you weren't," she said rolling her eyes and tossing the bag. "You just wanted to make sure there wasn't a single burnt kernel huh?"

"Well, you know me. Nothing tainted can be allowed near my perfect existence."

Nick smiled as Judy pulled the bowl down from the counter, spilling a few white puffs onto the floor.

"Hey, Nick, could you do me a solid and either lower your countertops or invest in a stool, because I'm feeling pretty useless around here," she huffed placing the bowl on the floor and crouching to pick up the lost kernels.

"Or _you_ could invest in some nice heels," Nick offered knowing full well the last time Judy had tried for anything higher than her normal shoeless approach she had to stop walking around the office after falling onto too many things and into too many animals. She glared at him and gave a humorless laugh.

"Ha-ha, aren't you the funniest guy I know? And why are you still staring at me?"

The way she was crouching, both her knees bent, her front paws helping her balance; there was something very familiar about it. In fact, all day Nick felt that there was something about Judy that reminded him of either some other mammal or something else in his lifetime. It was at the front of his brain, and holy hell was it driving him nuts!

"You just remind me of someone and I'm trying to figure out who," he admitted, coming around the couch to help her.

He took the popcorn from her, dumping it in the trash, then scooped her up along with the bowl and made his way back to the living room. Judy used to protest profusely whenever he carried her, either thrown over his shoulder or within his arms, but stopped after a while because it was no use arguing when he was going to do it again anyway, even after having been on the receiving end of her physical anger. Judy leaned her head on her hand, waiting to be put down.

"Why don't you become a detective since you're so good at watching mammals," she said sarcastically.

Nick stopped in his tracks. Again, there was that nagging sense that he was having déjà vu. Then he smiled. Yeah, he definitely remembered who Judy reminded him of. Someone he had met a long time ago when he had been just a young kit.

"Great, I forgot my gloves," Nick sighed looking at his bare paws.

He wasn't supposed to be home for another three hours and it was too late to go back and fetch them. He shoved his paws into the pockets of his green coat. It wasn't much warmer in there than it was outside but it was better than nothing. His coat was too small for him, he was growing rather quickly, but another jacket was something he couldn't afford just yet. Nick preferred the warmer weather which meant that his trips into Tundra Town were few and far in between in his young life. He zipped up his coat even higher, hiding the rest of his Junior Ranger Scouts uniform underneath. The group was supposed to have a winter type camp out in Tundra Town today, learning different survival techniques along with an ice hockey game and probably fire roasted marshmallows to top it all off.

Nick's mother had been so excited for her son when he had left for the Scouts that first day, proud that he had finally found something in his life he enjoyed and would give him friendships and experiences. After he had finished wiping away the tears outside the building that first night, Nick decided right then and there that he could never tell his mom what had happened. She had worked far too hard to save the money; his family was struggling enough as it was, and she had smiled far too brightly for him to go back empty handed. And so, he lied. Whenever, something was going on with the Scouts he left home at the appropriate time and waited until he was sure they would be done with their activities and then went back. Having used his time wandering to think, he came home with elaborate stories about games he had never won, and lessons he had never learned. Occasionally, he would bring in characters he knew his mother would never meet and placed them in friendly and humorous scenarios. His was sure his mother's favorites had to be the anecdotes he told about a zebra named Joey who he placed in numerous hilarious predicaments.

Nick exhaled, his breath fogging before he walked into the cloud. He didn't like lying to his mother, but it wasn't anything new to him. He lied too often and in too many ways for it to lay on his conscience for long. While his mother thought he was savvy with coupon cutting, he was cutting corners on grocery shopping and other purchases by suckering others into buying it for him or other less honest means. While she thought he was dealing very well with his schoolwork, he was out making deals with whoever had the time and smarts to do it for him. Granted, he learned everything, he just never did the work. He didn't have the time for it, not when there was money to be made or saved. Nick glanced upwards into the snow covered trees that held icicles above him like frozen chandeliers. Sometimes he wished he could tell her, but then she would make him stop, and that was something his family couldn't afford. Plus, she would be disappointed in her son and that was something _he_ couldn't afford.

He climbed a small hill and once he reached the top, looked over it onto Tundra Town's ice rink. He could see numerous small mammals swinging sticks around, diving for a black puck, and slipping and sliding until they couldn't stand straight anymore. He lay on his stomach and watched for a few minutes. He often went to the Scouts place of activity to watch them. He liked to say to himself that it was inspiration for the stories he would tell later. The real zebra Joey was based on hit the puck towards the net but ended up sliding in after it, ramming into the tiger that was acting as goalie. Nick couldn't help but smile. Why he really went, was to imagine himself with them. He would imagine setting up for the goal and hitting the puck and it sailing in. His team would get a point and he be surrounded by high fives and friendly words all around. They might still lose but it would be ok because it was the fun that counted. He huffed.

"But instead, I'm stuck up here."

"You're stuck?"

He hadn't expected another voice on the hill, it had been empty when he had last looked behind him. It startled him and he almost rolled down the hill the other way had he not dug his claws into the tree beside him. Looking down, halfway up the hill was a splotch of purple. He clamored back into his previous position trying to get a better view.

"Are you ok? How are you stuck?" the voice said again.

It sounded female to him. Probably one of the locals going on a walk and had wondered why a fox was alone here away from their ecosystem.

"I'm fine. I'm not really stuck," Nick called. Hopefully, this local would be on their way so he could go back to spying and feeling sorry for himself in peace.

"What are you doing?" the purple splotch asked.

"Nothing," he answered. Just watching mammals who I thought were my friends and being jealous. He rolled his eyes, as if he would ever say that out loud.

"Can I do nothing with you?" the splotch asked.

Nick tilted his head. Who the heck was this weird splotch that suddenly wanted to hang out with him? Before he could answer, the purple splotch made its way up the rest of the hill. Soon the splotch turned into a figure; the figure into a coat with the hood covering its owners' face.

"Hi," said the coat.

"Hi," he responded.

He couldn't tell what kind of animal was within the coat. It covered all of the animal's paws, the sleeves too long for its arms, no tail could be seen, and the bottom of the coat was snowy from dusting the ground.

"What kind of nothing are you doing up here?" the coat asked.

"Just some…," he looked around a second before finishing lamely, "watching."

"Oh, so it's a good nothing!" the coat exclaimed raising its sleeves.

The sleeves pushed at the hood until it fell back revealing…two rather large gray ears. And just below them, barely above the zipper were two big purple eyes staring at him. The talking coat was actually a young bunny. One of the sleeves reached for the zipper and pulled it down enough for a pink nose and a smile to peek through.

"I'm Judy," the bunny said waving the too big sleeve.

"Nick," he said with a smirk.

She really was very funny looking, waddling forward to reach his position in a coat that was clearly not meant for her tiny frame. She made it to the top and flopped forward on her tummy the way Nick had been. He looked at her in part confusion and part fascination. It was a rare day indeed when a prey, willingly joined him in anything. He was wary but wanted to see where it would go, so he joined her in laying in the snow.

"Were you watching those guys?" she asked nodding towards the ice rink.

Nick sighed heavily again and lay completely flat against the hill, his arms outstretched towards the town, his chin resting in the snow.

"Yeah."

"Do you know them? Are they your friends? Do you want to go play with them?"

He looked sideways at her wondering if she was always this talkative around strange mammals she had just met and how dangerous that probably was.

"Yeah, I know them. But they don't want me to play with them," he admitted.

He mentally slapped himself for breaking his new rule, not letting anyone know who got to him. Dumb, dumb fox.

"Well, that's mean. That's not right. Zootopia is where everyone gets along. I'm gonna go down there and tell them to let you in," she said staring at Nick so intently he thought he would catch flame.

"I don't think that's gonna…" he started but was interrupted when she started standing up again.

"That's a bad thing to do! They shouldn't do that should they Nick?"

Her face was pouting and she looked so much like an upset sushi roll that Nick had to chuckle at her as he said, "No, they shouldn't. What are you going to do?"

Judy whipped her head around to face him then fell back to the ground and did a little crawling and came nose to nose with him.

"They're the bad guys, so I'm gonna send them to jail."

Nick's eyes widened. He thought they had been jerks sure. He was very angry with them and how they treated him but, was jail really where they belonged? Could she do that? Was it possible? Maybe she was a police officer in disguise. He thought it was incredible. But then again, he doubted she could send them to jail. She was his age maybe. He had never heard of anyone young sending anyone else to jail.

"That sounds like a great idea Judy, but I think you have to be a cop to do that," he said sitting up again away from her intense stare.

He waited for her to say something else, or give up the idea but she was staring straight ahead.

"Judy?" Nick asked tentatively.

Did he break her? He wasn't sure. He might have. He didn't know how bunnies worked. Suddenly she was jumping up and down screaming,

"That's it, that's it! I'm gonna be a police officer!"

All that sudden excitement caused her to slip in the snow and fall backwards and she started to roll down the hill.

"Judy, hang on!" Nick yelled as he tried to run after the squealing bunny that was quickly becoming a splotch again.

He had never been very good in the snow; it was probably one of the reasons he didn't like it, and it wasn't long before his foot caught in something, whether it was against a rock or in a hole he never knew, and he too turned into a rolling ball of fur down the hill although his descent was far less graceful since he flopped forward instead of sideways. When he finally came to a stop at the bottom of the hill, he lay flat on his back and stared at the ice chandeliers above him and tried catching his breath. Suddenly a bunny head popped above him, purple eyes worried, and cheeks flushed from the snow.

"Nick, are you ok?" Judy asked placing a too big sleeve on his chest, checking for the heartbeat she hoped he had.

He wasn't sure why, maybe it was the way she looked in her coat, maybe it was the tragic tumble they took, maybe it was just the way the sun peeked through the treetops to give the chandeliers their light; but something made him slowly smile up at her and then start laughing as if he hadn't laughed in years. Judy took it as a good sign that he hadn't died and began laughing along with him. It felt good to laugh with someone. He had almost forgotten what it felt like. Soon they were both laughing so hard that tears were coming out of their eyes and they were holding onto their stomachs for fear they would split.

"Hey Judy," Nick said after catching his breath for a moment and wiping his eyes. "If you had wanted to race down the hill, you could have just said so."

Judy brushed the remaining snow off the top of her head with her sleeve while giggling.

"Sorry, I'll give you a heads up next time. This thing likes to trip me a lot," she said motioning to her coat. "I have a really big family and so we all use hand me downs. I'm not big enough for this one yet but I will be soon," she grinned, still pink from her laughter and the cold.

"I have an idea," the fox said pulling one arm out of his own sleeve and then the other. "Trade you."

Judy looked confused for a moment then followed his lead. He helped her into his green coat and pulled her purple one on. They both looked down. Her feet were now visible and most of her front paws were sticking out of the sleeves. Her eyes could have been jewels the way they were shining.

"Wow, Nick this was such a great idea. I can move in this now. And you made it nice and warm for me," she said hugging herself.

Nick was glad he could help, in fact the purple coat that had been much too large on her was now only slightly bigger on him. It was a welcome change to constantly pulling at the sleeves because they barely reached his wrists. He chuckled when she started practicing what looked like karate moves.

"What are you doing Judy?" he asked as she pretended to knock out invisible villains.

"I'm practicing for when I take those guys to jail," she stated not pausing in her routine.

Nick was impressed, she really meant to go through with it. He wondered if she would let him come when she arrested them.

"I mean, you're right that I have to wait to be a police officer first. But when I do, they'll be the first bad guys to go down. I'm gonna make the world a better place!" she announced.

Nick smiled as she attempted to do a somersault and fell sideways failing miserably. She had what he had once had. Something to strive for, something she wanted to do. He hoped she wouldn't get hurt like he did. He hoped she would be a police officer who took every bad and mean mammal to jail.

"What do you want to be?" Judy suddenly asked jumping up from the ground, his green coat allowing her to regain her balance.

"Me? I hadn't really thought of it," he answered.

He really hadn't. He had only had one goal in mind, and he had failed horribly.

"I think you should be a detective," she offered.

A detective? Now that was something. He could be like her and catch bad guys only with less donuts, since he knew police officers liked donuts.

"Yeah, that would be good. Because you're good at staring at people like you were up there on the hill. You could watch them and learn all of their secrets. You could be super sneaky," she said wiggling her paws in front of her face at him.

His smile faltered. Sneaky. Just as a fox should be. He knew she probably didn't mean to hurt his feelings, but what if she was just thinking the same thing everyone else thought. Foxes were better at staying out of sight and out of mind.

"We could even be partners!" Judy added out of the blue dragging him out of his inner musings.

"What?" he asked, he probably didn't hear right.

"We could be partners!" she repeated. "I could call you when I find a bad guy and you would follow him and watch him and gather clues and then since I will be a police officer I could put him in jail. We could make a great team!"

Nick's smile returned. Maybe she hadn't been thinking something terrible after all.

"Come on, I want to show you something cool," she said suddenly.

She grabbed Nick's paw and led him away to another side of the hill. Nick was amazed at how fast this rabbit could change the direction of her train of thought. On this new side of the hill there was a small lake that had been frozen over.

"Look, look, look," Judy demanded.

She directed Nick's attention to a patch of fresh snow and promptly stepped in it. Nick didn't understand.

"I've seen paw prints before Judy," he said clearly not impressed.

"That's not it silly fox, wait a second," she said scampering off to the edge of the lake.

She came back with her paws holding what looked like dirty watery mush. He wondered what she was carrying that for. She plopped it into the paw print she had just made and patted it into place.

"Now we wait," she concluded crouching on the ground in front of it, her front paws helping her balance.

Nick slowly sat down next to her, still utterly confused as to why she had put what looked like a dropped snow cone into a hole she made, and especially not why they had to wait.

"This is boring," he huffed, falling backwards. "I wasn't made to sit still this long."

"You did it on the hill," she responded not looking back at him.

He was glad she wasn't or she would've seen the scowl that came across his face for a moment.

"Besides," she continued, "the ending is always the best part."

"Nah," he disagreed, "the beginning is always best, because without it, the ending wouldn't have a reason to exist."

Judy did look back at him this time and they stared at each other a moment before she turned back around smiling.

"You're a funny fox Nick."

"I know, I'll be here all week."

On the inside he was kind of feeling warm. No one had ever called him funny, unless it was in the context of how he looked or sounded. Well, not 'no one'. His mom didn't count though. After a while, she finally nudged his leg for him to sit up and he did.

"Behold!" she sang as she pulled up out of the snow the sludge that she had packed into it.

The sludge was now frozen into the shape of her paw print. Nicks eyes went so wide he thought they might pop out of his skull.

"Wow!" he said when she handed it to him. It was a little crumbly at the edges where the shape hadn't held but other than that it was perfectly perfect.

"I figured that I can make ice cubes in my paw shape. Wouldn't that be awesome? If only I had better water to work with." she mused.

Nick looked back to her from the paw print ice cube.

"You're a cool bunny Judy."

She beamed with pride at the compliment. The two spent the rest of the day making various attempts at perfecting the paw print ice cube; including Judy's idea to "cupcake" wrap them which involved using leaves as a base to pour the water on. It worked until the leaves started fusing into the cube and causing cracks. It was late before they both realized they had to go home.

"I'm here with one of my older sisters. She came to visit her boyfriend," said Judy making a face. She leaned in closer to Nick and whispered, "I said I wouldn't tell if she brought me with her."

"Very cool bunny," Nick said amused by her trickery.

"She'll kill me if I'm late though."

"Yeah, I have to get going too."

They silently exchanged back their coats and promised each other that they would try to figure out the perfect paw print ice cube.

"Maybe, I'll see you around someday," Nick said placing his paw on her head between her ears.

"Yep, maybe," she said giggling rubbing at her head. "That tickles."

"Sorry," he said smiling sheepishly putting his front paws in his pockets.

They both went their separate ways and Nick was all too willing to tell his mom how his day went. He loved having something real to tell her. And by the look in her eyes at how animated and happy her son had become, she was too. When he got to the part about their paw print ice cubes his mom chuckled and said,

"It sounded like you two made "paw-psicles".

She stayed chuckling at her own joke while her son had a lightbulb go on in his brain and a slow grin spread across his face.

Nick? Nick? Why are you just standing here?"

Judy started wriggling around in his grasp brushing her tail in his face jarring him out of his reminiscence.

"What, oh, sorry."

He continued on and dumped his partner not so gently on the couch pillows. She lay there unamused.

"What was that?" she asked sitting up.

"Nothing, nothing at all," he said scooting closer to her.

He placed a paw on her head and lightly drew it along one of her ears. She started giggling and tried brushing his hand away.

"Nick! Hahaha, your claws are tickling my ears!" she rolled to one side to get away from him.

He just grinned and pressed the play button for the movie. Judy had not gotten up from the pillows, still trying to rub away the tingly sensations Nick had caused on her ears.

"Oh, come on Carrots, you're going to miss the beginning and then you'll have no idea what's going on," he said poking at the fluffy creature beneath his throw pillows.

"Whatever, it's your fault. Besides, the beginnings are boring. Nothing ever happens," she said finally getting up and scooting up close to her fox and cuddling on his arm.

"Are you kidding, the beginning is most important because without it the ending would have no reason to exist."

Judy paused from bringing popcorn to her mouth and stared up at him.

"What? Something on my face?" Nick asked running a paw down his muzzle.

"No, nothing," said Judy turning back to the screen. "You just reminded me of someone."


End file.
